The Art and Craft of the Handmade Film Extravaganza
by Julia Ain Burns
From November 18th to 22nd QAS will be held a Handmade Film Extravaganza! This is a filmmaking workshop with Helen Hill (all the way from New Orleans) and OAS Film Production Coordinator and scratch animator Richard Reeves. Participants produced handmade films and practiced experimental animation techniques.
With handmade film techniques the physical properties of the film are manipulated directly by the artist. The film surface can be added to (i.e. painting pink directly) or subtracted from (i.e. scratching away the emulsion layers). It can also be manipulated through effecting the developing process of the emulsion by hand processing.
Hand processing is a creative as well as a technical. Rather than delivering the film to a lab technician to develop the raw stock, the artist directly works with the chemistry and develops the film image. This participation in the developing process allows the artist to experiment with aesthetics and techniques which are not available through the lab.
The things which can be done to film surface are as limitless as the creative imagination: manipulating the photo-chemical process, immersing in various substances (i.e. foods, bleach, urine), baking, boiling, burying, etching, scratching, batik, cut and paste, iron transfers, dyeing, punching holes, stamping, painting, photocopying, and even growing mold on the film surface and lacquering over it.
The appeal of these techniques to many artists is that it brings the film making process closer to the realm of sculpture or painting, as the surface they are working with and the image are not separate from each other or with the goal of projecting the material into movement. Artists can control the substance of film with the knowledge that the work will have a separate moving state, a presentation with various levels of autonomy from its physical state. This where hand crafted film exists as an experimental animation technique. Recognizing each single frame as a still picture and projecting these single art works into movement.
An appeal of most hand crafted film techniques is that they are easily available, affordable, and take a surprisingly short time to learn. During the short five days of the Handmade Film Extravaganza it is possible for participants to make their own short films. Hand crafted techniques rely on practice rather than expertise or specialized training. With hand crafting a single person can produce a work from first idea to completion in as little or as much time as they want. Depending on your chosen technique, you can make your film in almost any space and with very little equipment. This allows many film makers to set up base in their own homes. Bringing art making into the home creates a multiple use for the living space that bridges the divide between art and life.
The Cameraless Extravaganza has become a popular annual event at QAS. By expanding it this year to a Handmade Film Extravaganza QAS offers exposure and instruction on a broader collection of experimental film and animation techniques. This week will not only prove to be a valuable creative journey but also an undeniably good time.
